10 Ways to Engage Students in Exploring Geography with Technology

Geography is essential for student learning because it assists students in learning and expanding their vocabulary. Geography is divided into five different themes: 1) Location, position on the Earth's surface, 2) Place, natural and cultural characteristics, 3) Relationships within places, humans, and environments, 4) Movement, humans interacting on the Earth, and 5) Regions, how they form and change.

There are numerous innovative ways to teach geography in the classroom. One way is through current events. Students can look through a local, national, or international newspaper to look at current geographic events. Students can also browse the Newsela website. This website has current articles that allows students of all learning levels to participate. If students are on a lower reading level or have reading comprehension difficulties, they can switch the text level to a lower level. 

Teachers can also teach geography by displaying a picture. Students can look at the picture and talk about what they see in the picture and what the picture is trying to say; one picture can display a thousand words. 

After viewing this slideshow, I learned additional ways to engage students in exploring geography with technology in the classroom. I chose ten ways that I felt would most engage students and that I would use and implement in my future elementary classroom:

1) Picture Reveal: Students have to answer questions. Every time a question is answered correctly, a part of the picture is revealed. Each revelation will entice the students to try and answer the questions correctly because they will want to know the image hiding behind the picture. 

2) Map from Memory: Students work in groups and have 20 seconds and view and study a map or diagram. They then return to their group and draw what they remember. This is a great way for students to retain an image in their mind because they are forcing themselves to concentrate and practice memorization through seeing and drawing. 

3) 5 W's: Students look at an image and and ask a series of questions that contains: who, what, where, when, and why. The lesson is focused on the students answering those questions. This exercise allows students to analyze and make predictions about an image based on clues.

4) Noughts and Crosses: The teacher divides the class into two groups and asks nine questions. Using a tic-tac-toe board, whenever a group answers the question correctly, they place an x or an o on the board. This a fun and educational way for students to learn and review. Students get really competitive among one another too.

5) Stop Disasters: This simulation games allows students to prepare for natural disasters while on a budget. It really teaches students about the devastation and costs that natural disasters impose to the world, as well as the reliability certain areas of the world have on certain products or objects to survive.

6) Survey Monkey: This surveying device allows the teacher to obtain immediate feedback. Students can answer questions and the teacher can see which responses are the most popular.

7) Model: Physical features can be molded and modeled with plasticine. This model allows students to visualize a concept or object that is being taught and is also tangible. 

8) Bingo: This activity can be used for review. The teacher can read vocabulary definitions and the students have to mark their boards if they have the correct vocabulary word. 

9) Dominoes: This activity allows students to see that one thing causes another event and is a continuation. A teacher can set up dominoes and label each domino as a certain cause that leads into a specific event.

10) GeoTube: These are geography videos that are on youtube. These provide students with another way to obtain geography information. 

Teaching Channel: Formative Assessment

I believe exit tickets are great ways to assess students. It is quick and can be used during any point throughout the day. Not only does it provide the teacher with immediate feedback, it also allows students to visually see if they are understanding the material and if they need to ask the teacher for additional help. Throughout my fieldwork experience and my substitute teaching experience, I have seen more and more teachings use and implement exit tickets in their classroom. I also strongly agree when April Pforts compared formative teaching and exit tickets to taking students on a trip. The teacher needs to pick the destination in where she wants to take her students in learning, the route to get there, and anticipated stops and detours. This is a great analogy. 

Active Learning

After watching the Annenberg Learner video about engaging students in active learning, there are various strategies I feel are beneficial to student learning in the classroom. These active learning strategies are cooperative learning, authentic instruction, questioning, engaging activities, and presentations. 


Personally, I really enjoy cooperative learning. Cooperative learning allows all students to participate and engage in discussion. Cooperative learning also contributes to students' social skills. 

Authentic instruction is another active learning strategy. This strategy contains: Higher-order thinking (critical thinking), depth of knowledge (comprehensive learning), connections to the world beyond the classroom (applies concepts), substantive conversation (meaningful discussion), and social support for student achievement (encouragement/inclusion). Authentic instruction allows students to connect their learning to what they know and see/do in the real world. It allows students to receive encouragement to continue engagement and success in learning, to think critically and discuss the topic, and to learn comprehensively. 

Questioning is another great active learning strategy. Questioning is quick and simplistic. It allows the teacher to informally assess what the students already know and what they need help on. It also keeps students engaged. 

Engaging activities are extremely beneficial to students. When engaging activities are hands-on, it allows students to take abstract concepts and make them more concrete. This will allow students to comprehend and apply the concept correctly. 

Presentations allow for students to share with the class what they have learned, as well as for the teacher to assess student learning. It is a great way for students to practice social skills, as well as display all their hard work. 

Jigsaw Activity

Today we had to present our jigsaw activity project. A jigsaw activity is when the class is divided into two groups. Then, those two groups separate into further groups to complete a task. Our task was to create a presentation on social skills and face-to-face interaction. 

Here is our presentation. 

Overall, I thought the presentation went really well. All group members participated and we presented the information greatly. Through this activity, I learned a lot about social skills and face to face interaction in just a short period of time. I enjoy the jigsaw activity and believe it is a great way for students to cooperatively learn individually, as well as, as a team. 

Personal Insight

I had to complete a questionnaire to see which grade level I prefer to teach. According to the questionnaire, I prefer to teach students of ages 7-8, followed by ages 5-6, and then 9-14. I completely disagree with this questionnaire. I enjoy teaching students in all elementary grades, but have a slight higher preference for 4th grade and up. This is only because at this age, students begin to identify who they are and develop opinions. They know what subjects the love and have interests outside of school.

Direct Instruction, Cooperative Learning, and Inquiry-Based Learning!

The three types of lesson plans that our class is required to teach in fieldwork are direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative lesson plans. There are numerous components that make up each type of lesson.

Direct instruction is explicitly teaching content through lectures, demonstrations, modeling, and explanations. This type of instruction is more teacher-centered and fast-paced. Direct instruction is composed of goals, standards, objectives, and an introduction. The introduction contains review, a rationale, and a focuser. The introduction acquires students' prior knowledge and warms them up for the start of the lesson. Then the development occurs which is composed of an explanation, demonstration, modeling, visual aids, examples, non-examples, and comparison with something that the students know. Guided practice then takes place and includes prompting and student consequences. Closure then occurs along with a type of evaluation of student learning. Finally, an independent practice is distributed to students.

Inquiry learning is when students are faced with a problem or scenario and need to use their higher order thinking skills and critical thinking to carry out the process of solving the problem or scenario. This type of lesson is indirect and is more student-centered. An inquiry-based lesson is composed of goals, standards, and objectives, as well as the 5 E's (explain, explore,expand, elaborate, and evaluate). Students begin the lesson with exploration in the introduction. Next, they continue exploration and explanation in the development. The students then expand through monitored inquiry. Students elaborate through their assigned independent practice and the lesson is summed up in closure. Students are finally evaluated on the content they learned.

Cooperative learning is when students work with each other to develop social skills, as well as learn new content. This type of lesson is also student-centered and contains various parts.Cooperative learning is composed of goals, standards, and objectives. Students are pre-assessed in the introduction and then the development of the lesson occurs. The development involves group work. Students are also given an independent practice and the lesson is summed up in closure. Students are finally evaluated.


These three lessons are contain the same components. However, the difference among these lessons is whether the lesson is student-centered or teacher-centered, working independently or in groups, and how the material being learning is presented.


The lesson plan that I compiled together was the Direct Instruction Lesson Plan. Before teaching the lesson, I had to put together reflection questions that assessed each part of the lesson. The purpose of these questions was to assess how effective the components of the lesson plan were regarding academics and student engagement. The questions and answers are as follows:



Introduction


Did the video, word cloud, and pictures activate the students' prior knowledge and capture their attention?

I believe the video, word cloud, and pictures all activated student's prior knowledge and captured their attention. Students were fully engaged because their eyes were always on the teachers or the SMARTboard. They were actively participating by answering questions. When a teacher would ask the students what they knew about the video, the picture, or the word cloud, students immediately responded and began to pour out all of their knowledge, which was correct.


Development


Was a Prezi presentation the best way to present the material? Were students able to follow along and become engaged with the Prezi?

I believe so. Students were focused on the presentation. We never had to refocus a student or tell them to pay attention. They all followed along and never asked to go back or clarify anything. The Prezi theme chosen for the presentation was perfect for the lesson being taught.


Were the videos and pictures in the Prezi sufficient for student learning and understanding?

Yes. The videos provided visual and audio representations. They are a great way to target learners with disabilities, as well as for students without. They keep students engaged and provide another way for instruction instead of the teacher talking all the time. They students loved the pictures and figured out what each picture was and represented.

Guided Practice
Did the vortex, picture, and video activities allow the students to practice what they just learned?

Unfortunately because of time limitations, we were unable to do the picture activity. We were able to do the video and vortex activity. We played a video that was previously shown in the beginning of the lesson, except this time, the video was on silent. The students were fixated on the video and were engaged. They answered questions that we asked about what they noticed in the video. The students absolutely loved the vortex activity. Each student was able to come up to the SMARTboard and answer a question. They were fully engaged and each student enjoyed the activity.


Was the student praise and/or consequence provided lacking, too much, or sufficient enough to contribute to student confidence and learning?

I believed student praise was sufficient enough. When students responded correctly we told them, "Good Job!" or "Excellent Answer!" These responses would contribute to their confidence and want them to answer questions.


Closure
Did student groups asking other student groups questions allow the teacher to assess who really understood the content and who did not?

I thought this was a great way to assess students. Each group came up with a question that they had to ask another group. Some questions that were asked were basic, while others required students to critically think and use their higher order thinking skills which was excellent.

Independent Practice


Was the socrative fun for students, as well as provide practice for them? Did the socrative quiz allow the teacher to summatively assess the student?

Unfortunately because of time limitations, we were unable to perform the Socrative quiz. The Socrative quiz was given to the teacher to implement in her classroom that we are still waiting for results back.

It's More Than Just Working in Groups

Cooperative learning is more than just working in groups; it enhances students' critical and higher order thinking skills. After reading numerous articles about cooperative learning, I have quickly learned an abundant of useful information.

• "In extensive meta-analyses across hundreds of studies, cooperative arrangements were found superior to either competitive or individualistic structures on a variety of outcome measures, generally showing higher achievement, higher-level reasoning, more frequent generation of new ideas and solutions, and greater transfer of what is learned from one situation to another." (Barkley, et al, 2005: p.17-18)

The five key elements of cooperative learning are positive interdependence, group processing, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, and interpersonal/small group social skills. I strongly believe that all these aspects contribute to the enhancement of critical and higher order thinking skills. When students develop these skills, I believe they are able to retain information effectively and are able to apply their knowledge.